Research

Internal Focus Group

Purpose:

Before beginning anything else, my teammate and I held a kick-off focus group with heads of the company: the DOO, CTO, and CEO. The goal was to lead an in-depth discussion regarding the current online ordering system's strengths & weaknesses, our available access to development department members, as well as any specific expectations they had of the new platform. After a couple of hours of constructive feedback, we got what we needed.  

Insight:

• The Current Disaster: Whether assaulting patrons with endless screen-switching or making menu-editing nearly impossible for restaurateurs, the current online ordering software exuded convolution.  
  
• Dev Team Gone Missing: With the international development team's plate full for the next quarter or more, any feedback on the platform's developmental limitations would be scarce. 
  
• Expecting it all: The President was determined for us not to come an inch short of his "pie in the sky" anticipations. The pressure was on.
  

Competitive Analysis

Purpose:

To better understand the patron-facing platform was up against, we set out to understand our competition. From similar companies like Eat24 to specific restaurant chains like Panera Bread, we dove into the best online ordering experiences in order to beat them at their own game.

Insight:

After aggregating key features and aspects, we generated a competitor analysis matrix to fully comprehend the attractions and flaws of each. By re-configuring this data into a visual structure, we could better digest the competitors' strengths and flaws. This information would prove to be vital later on in the research phase.

Survey

Purpose:

The purpose of our survey was to better understand the expectations held by the current customer base regarding the application's restaurateur-facing side. We carefully structured the survey's questioning to ensure a lack of bias, as well as a prioritization of time-sensitivity. After several months of email marketing exposure, I was able to launch a campaign that was met with a 42.7% open rate and 9.3% click rate. Our survey email campaign gained insight into the following:  

• Impressions on the company's current services.  
  
• Expectations for future offerings from the company. 
  
• The potential interest in enhanced online ordering. 
  
• Online ordering feature preference. 
  
• Preferred method of order/notification reception.  

Based on the hundreds of survey responses, we learned the follow:

• Ordereze's current customers were thrilled with the company's customer service, yet found the company's catalog of services and service effectiveness to be underwhelming. 
• A new online ordering platform along with all proposed traits (e.g. "ease of use") were highly anticipated. 
• Regarding notification types, POS-integration dominated (despite a respondent insisting on "interpretive dance, singing telegram, or mime")
• Shockingly, the actual existence of a current online ordering system came as a surprise to many... Generating buzz for their current application must have been a challenge.

"If the online ordering system could somehow integrate with our POS system, that would be great"
Danielle, Manager at Gadient Hospitality Group

"I'm very nervous to proceed with online ordering, because our staff may not be able to handle this responsibility"

Jane, Manager at Gennaro's Eatery

Personas

Purpose:

The feedback we received from the survey allowed us to better empathize with our customers, providing a vantage point for understanding the admin users. That being said, more insight was needed to empathize with the potential end users.

We utilized previously unused end user data collected from the company's CRM - this allowed us to construct a User Persona to represent the average end user. 

Insights:

By aggregating and organizing the survey results we were able to come to the following conclusion: speed and simplicity was of the essence. 

User Journey

Feature Listing

Information Architecture

The final step before diving into any UI specifics was the information architecture. This step was possibly the quickest of all.

Notice how the potential inclusion of quick-access capabilities enabled some IA complexities. 

Construct

Sketching

Time to bunker down and map out the entire UI of both the patron and restaurateur sides. 

To do so, we were granted sole access to Customer Support's sacred training room (a rare occurrence). Using a recipe of 3 computers, 2 whiteboards, a projector, and days-worth of work, we eventually drew up an outline of what we considered to be the perfect interfaces for the company's online ordering platform. 

Wireframing

After completing the sketches, I took to Balsamiq, the company's only in-house wire framing software, to craft the official versions. 

In-House Usability Testing

Purpose:

Time to test out what we have so far.
To validate UI design within budgetary restraints, we conducted laminated paper prototyping with Customer Success members. Lamination ensured quick reusability.

Insight:

Quick access was highlighted more so than ever.
Whether unfulfilling edit capabilities within the side-cart, lack of accessibility within the checkout process, or the non-clickable map interface on the location pop-up, the natural tendencies of in-house members were eye opening.

Design

Custom Styling

The pre-project decision to allow typography, coloring, text content, and imagery to be dependent on the restaurant-specific branding, this design phase of this project very simple. 

For restaurant-specific branding capabilities, we stuck with functionality identical to other in-house software. 

Hi-Fi Mockups